Namsos
Namsos is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen region. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of Namsos. Some of the villages in the municipality include Bangsund, Klinga, Ramsvika, Skomsvoll, Spillum, Sævik, Dun, Salsnes, Nufsfjord, Lund, Namdalseid, Sjøåsen, Statland, Tøttdalen, and Sverkmoen. The 2,133-square-kilometre (824 sq mi) municipality is the 30th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Namsos is the 78th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 13,078. The municipality's population density is 7.6 inhabitants per square kilometer (20/sq mi) and its population has increased by 0.4% over the previous 10-year period.
History
On 1 January 1838, the parish of Vemundvik was established as a municipality. In 1846, the village of Namsos in Vemundvik was established as a ladested. Namsos was located at the mouth of the Namsen river in the Sævik area of Vemundvik. The new ladested (town) was established as its own municipality, with 591 inhabitants. This left Vemundvik with 908 residents.
In 1865, the town of Namsos also became a parish in the Church of Norway. It had been decided to build a church in the city in March 1859; the construction was finished in November. In May 1865, the parish was created, with the sub-parishes of Sævik and Vemundvik, formerly within Overhalla parish, was incorporated into Namsos' parish limits.
Areas of Vemundvik lying adjacent to the town of Namsos were later incorporated within the city limits on numerous occasions. On 1 January 1882, an area with 109 inhabitants was moved to the town; on 1 July 1921 an area with 927 inhabitants; and on 1 July 1957, another area with a population of 6.
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the size of Namsos was significantly increased as the neighboring municipalities of Vemundvik (population: 2,040) and Klinga was incorporated into the town of Namsos (population: 5,224). On the same date, the northern part of the neighboring municipality of Otterøy, and the Finnanger area of Fosnes municipality were also incorporated into Namsos. Namsos, which previously had a population of 5,224, had its size increased to 10,875 inhabitants.
Consisting mostly of wooden houses, it has been burned down to the ground on three occasions during its relatively short history. The first fire was in 1872, caused by two boys playing with matches. The second fire was in 1897, from an unknown cause. The third time was during World War II when the town was bombed by German airplanes on 20 April 1940.
The location by the river and the large forests nearby made the town ideal for sawmills. There were eleven mills in their heyday, but only one remains Moelven Van Severen. In addition, the Norwegian Sawmill Museum is located at Spillum just south of the town. The museum is located at the now-closed and restored Spillum Dampsag & Hovleri sawmill from 1884. The town has a swimming pool, Oasen, built inside a mountain.
On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Nord-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county.
On 1 January 2020, the three neighboring municipalities of Fosnes, Namsos, and Namdalseid merged to form a new, larger Namsos municipality. This occurred because on 16 June 2016 the three municipalities voted to merge as part of a large municipal reform across Norway.